While NY's highest court upheld Columbia University's Manhattanville expansion, two property holdouts and State Senator Bill Perkins are hoping that the Supreme Court will hear the case. The Columbia Spectator reports that the holdouts' attorneys "are appealing the decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, arguing that the decision promotes an abuse of eminent domain law and violates fundamental constitutional rights." Perkins' brief also "[asserts] that the Court of Appeals ignored legal safeguards articulated in the landmark 2005 Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v. City of New London." more ›

NY's highest court, the Court of Appeals, upheld the Manhattanville expansion plans of Columbia University, allowing the institution to move forward on its ambitious 17 acre project. The Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's ruling that the state's use of eminent domain to seize private property was unconstitutional and said the state improperly found property blighted. In the 7-0 decision, Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote, "It cannot be said that [Empire State Development Corporation]'s finding of blight was irrational or baseless. Indeed, ESDC considered a wide range of factors including the physical, economic, engineering and environmental conditions at the Project site. Its decision was not based on any one of these factors, but on the Project site conditions as a whole." more ›

Bruce Ratner must have exhaled a sigh of relief when outspoken nemesis Daniel Goldstein finally agreed to vacate the last apartment in the footprint of his multi-billion dollar Atlantic Yards site last month, giving way for the humongous project to begin construction. But just because no one is physically in his way anymore doesn't mean Ratner doesn't have to contend with more ethereal concerns! more ›

Saturday night was the last night of revelry at the beloved Prospect Heights dive Freddy's Bar & Backroom, which had become an unofficial headquarters for the anti-Atlantic Yards protests. The closing party appears to have been quite the rager, with "speeches by bartenders professing love for each other and fake marriage proposals, a constant stream of women dancing on the bar, and a fire dancer that twirled flaming torches," NY Drinker reports. more ›

On March 1st, Brooklyn property owner Henry Weinstein lost control of his six-story office building on Pacific Street when the state finally used eminent domain to seize it for the controversial Atlantic Yards project. Like others who've opposed the project, Weinstein is outraged about losing the battle, but adding insult to injury, he says one of his tenants illegally sold his lease to developer Bruce Ratner. So yesterday Weinstein savored a little payback, and with the help of sheriff's deputies, forcibly evicted the tenant, Shaya Boymelgreen, who was also behind on his rent, according to Weinstein. more ›

After firing famed architect Frank Gehry in an effort to cut costs, the developer of the controversial Atlantic Yards project is in talks with the man who designed the Freedom Tower. Architect David Childs told the Brooklyn Paper that Atlantic Yards builder Bruce Ratner asked him to give plans for the proposed basketball arena a "once over," and also discussed hiring him to construct one of the 16 skyscrapers that Ratner wants to build on the site. more ›

After years of delays and legal objections, Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner says he will break ground on his controversial megaproject on March 11. The announcement comes after a judge ruled that state officials can use eminent domain to evict Brooklyn residents who live in the footprint of the $4.9 billion development, which calls for high-rises and a basketball arena on the border of Fort Greene and Prospect Heights. "Today's court ruling marks the transition from the obstruction to the construction phase," said Forest City Ratner executive vice president Bruce Bender. more ›

According to the Brooklyn Paper, state Supreme Court Justice Abe Gerges ruled that 14 claims by project opponents regarding issues including the timing of the condemnations and recent modifications of the plan had no "merit." Last year, the project seemed stalled before an Appeals Court dismissed lawsuits challenging the development and Ratner managed to sell $511 million in bonds to get financing. Ratner—who project opponents attempted to arrest last month —will now likely be able to move forward by permanently closing streets around the project site and beginning construction on the Barclays Center. more ›

Despite their best efforts, a coalition of homeless people and community activists failed to arrest Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner. Though the man behind the $4.9 billion plan to move one of the worst teams in NBA history to Brooklyn isn't facing an indictment and there are no warrants out for his arrest, the demonstrators planned to lock him up over allegations of bribery at a widely publicized rally they held in front of his Downtown Brooklyn building. more ›

To make room for the proposed Atlantic Yards project — which calls for a basketball arena and high-rise buildings at the nexus of Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Fort Greene — the state will permanently close several streets to traffic. According to NY1, starting on or around February 1, Pacific Street between both Vanderbilt and Carlton avenues and Fifth and Sixth avenues will be closed, as well Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and Atlantic avenues. But what will those closures mean for commuters and residents? more ›

Here's a sign that the Atlantic Yards project might actually get built — longstanding opponent Daniel Goldstein has started to look for a new place to live, according to the Associated Press. Goldstein, the most vocal adversary of developer Bruce Ratner's plan to move the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn and construct a high-rise housing complex, currently resides within the project's footprint and would be forced out using eminent domain proceedings. Though the wire service reports "he isn't ready to concede defeat," Goldstein has apparently started thinking about finding a new place to live. This comes after the seemingly beleaguered project won a major victory when a court dismissed a lawsuit challenging its use of eminent domain, and after Ratner finally closed on the $4.9 billion deal. In November, the state gave Goldstein a lowball offer for his Prospect Heights condo, promising him $80,000 less than he spent to buy it in 2003. more ›

In the months before developer Bruce Ratner closed the deal on his $4.9 billion plan to move the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn and construct high-rise buildings on the Atlantic Yards site, someone painted over a series of murals created by opponents of the project — and anti-Atlantic Yards activists claim that Ratner is at fault. more ›

After years of legal wrangling, developer Bruce Ratner finally closed on the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project—which involved the state, city, MTA, and other agencies—in downtown Brooklyn. Ratner said in a press release, "Six years after we announced our plan for Atlantic Yards we are very pleased to be closing on the project with our public partners. Today’s closing represents a vital step forward for New York City, one that is all the more important because of the economic challenges our City faces. The jobs we are creating today, as we set forth on the arena and one of the boldest affordable housing initiatives in our City’s history, will create a new dynamic center in this wonderful borough.” more ›

Earlier this month, a state appellate court ruled that the Empire State Development Corporation's use of eminent domain to seize West Harlem land was unconstitutional. The court said Columbia University, which had been eying the property for its Manhattanville project, had contributed to the blighting of the neighborhood by letting its buildings fall into disrepair. Yesterday, protesters rallied to demand that Columbia respect the court's decision. more ›

With a state appeals court's 3-2 decision to call NY State's seizure of West Harlem land by way of eminent domain "unconstitutional," the land owners who sued are thrilled. Nick Sprayregen, a storage business owner, told the Columbia Spectator, “We’re thrilled. We were always cautiously optimistic, but we always thought that we probably wouldn’t win. The majority of the court obviously saw what we saw, that the whole finding of blight was preposterous and engineered specifically to give all the private property over to Columbia. They’re shining a light finally that collusion and conflicts of interests evident in this relationship between Columbia and the state cannot be allowed to continue, and thus they’re putting a stop to this taking of land by Columbia.” more ›

Last December, the Empire State Development Corporation decided to use eminent domain to seize land in West Harlem for Columbia's ambitious Manhattanville development. (NY State officially "blighted" the 17 acres in July 2008.) But now a state appellate courts has overturned the use of eminent domain. The Observer reports, "The decision says, the clear beneficiary was Columbia, not the public. Columbia, by buying up property and not maintaining sidewalks, helped to create blight, the court found, and the university underwrote costs for the entire project, rather than the city or state committing funds." And here's text of the decision: more ›

The NY State Court of Appeals, the highest in the state, dismissed a lawsuit challenging the use of eminent domain for developer Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. The NY Times calls the lawsuit the "last major obstacle" for Ratner, "whose 22-acre development has been delayed for three years by a flurry of lawsuits, the collapse of the credit and real estate markets and a glut of luxury housing, plans to begin selling tax-free bonds next month to finance the development’s cornerstone project: an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues near downtown." more ›

Daniel Goldstein — the city's most prominent Atlantic Yards opponent — was low-balled by the state with an eminent domain offer of just $510,000 for a three-bedroom Prospect Heights condo he purchased for $590,000 in 2003. It's also less than half what mega-developer Bruce Ratner offered Goldstein for the home, which, alongside Goldstein's lawsuits, stand in the way of $4.9 billion plan. Goldstein believes the state made such a low offer "to deter people from fighting like we have," but others say it's the real estate downturn, which has put the entire Atlantic Yards project on thin ice. In the coming days, the state's highest court is expected to rule on Goldstein's lawsuit alleging that the state is improperly using eminent domain to seize private property to benefit Ratner's company — not the public. [Via Brownstoner] more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] The dream of the Second Avenue subway line is turning into a nightmare for dozens of Upper East Side residents who must relocate to make way for ventilation shafts, stairwells and infrastructure for the $4.5 billion line, scheduled to open in 2017. (Coincidentally, that's the very same year a team of leprechauns and unicorns will finish transforming the East River into hot chocolate waterfalls.) Some 60 residences in the neighborhood must be vacated, and tenants—many of whom occupy rent-stabilized apartments far below market rates—say the relocation service hired by the MTA is not providing them with comparable options, as required by federal eminent domain laws. more ›

In a highly contentious July decision, Brooklyn's Community Board 1 voted to convert a 31-acre area zoned for manufacturing on the border of Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant into 1,895 low-rise apartments—905 of which would charge below-market rate rents. Opponents say the buildings would be too small and accuse the city of awarding housing contracts to non-profits tied to influential Assemblyman Vito Lopez—the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and the Bushwick Ridgewood Senior Citizens Council—without putting the sites up for bid. more ›

After a state appellate court rejected a lawsuit stopping his Atlantic Yards project, developer Bruce Ratner says that ground will be broken sometime this year (maybe this summer, maybe this fall). He told the NY Times, "I’m honestly overjoyed. This is a weight off my back." A group of property owners in the footprint of the massive project had claimed eminent domain was improperly used to obtain land; the appellate court unanimously rejected the challenge, finding, "It cannot be said that the public benefits which the Atlantic Yards project is expected to yield are incidental or pretextual in comparison to the benefit that will be bestowed upon the project’s private developer." Still, the opponents, who believe Ratner will profit much more than the public will benefit (and who have helped stall the plans for two years), vow to take their case to the Court of Appeals. The Daily News notes, "The decision allows Ratner to qualify for tax-free bonds to build the arena and the go-ahead to purchase the MTA-owned rail yard on which it will be built." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg's controversial plans to rezone and develop the Coney Island amusement district have been long stymied due to a breakdown in negotiations between the city and developer Joe Sitt, who has bought up much of the beachfront property in the area targeted for development. The city wants to purchase Sitt's 10.5 acres of property, which includes the now-desolate Astroland, for approximately $110 million, according to the Post. more ›

Five months after state officials found the site "blighted," the Empire State Development Corporation voted to use eminent domain to seize real estate for Columbia's Manhattanville expansion. The Columbia Spectator reports, "The state's decision on Thursday, will allow the state to seize land from two holdouts who have not struck property deals with the University. In exchange, the landowners--Nick Sprayregen, the owner of Tuck-It-Away Storage, and the Singh family, which operates two gas stations in Manhattanville--will receive market rate compensation." But apparently Sprayregen will "file our petition contesting the findings of eminent domain." more ›

Hiram Monserrate, the City Councilman who had been one of the leading voices of opposition foiling Mayor Bloomberg’s redevelopment plans in Willets Point, announced yesterday that he has struck a deal with the mayor and thrown his support behind the proposal which is expected to be voted on (and will now likely pass) today. The new deal includes guarantee that one-third of the housing built to be marked "permanently affordable” for low-income families, an 850-seat school and a convention center to be built in the area, a $3 million tenant relocation fund available for area businesses and job training and placement for the 1,300 affected workers.The plan still doesn’t rule out the possibility that the city will have to invoke eminent domain. Not all of Monserrate’s constituents were happy with his announcement—some local business owners painted over his name on his campaign bus. more ›

The Empire State Development Corporation held a two-day meeting for the public to air their opinions and concerns about Columbia University's Manhattanville plan. The NY Times reported, "while the two-day hearing featured testimony from a former mayor, members of the State Legislature and the president of Columbia University, the group that will make the ultimate decision, the development corporation’s board, was not there." (Only a lawyer for the ESDC listened.) Former mayor David Dinkins said he is "convinced it...will be positive for Columbia and its neighbors." But on the other side, others, notably Nick Sprayregen who is fighting Columbia to keep his property in the footprint, said there's no reason why the ESDC should have declared the area blighted, opening up the door to eminent domain. more ›

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A new photography exhibit examining the shifting views of public and private space, , opens today at the New York Public Library. Five photographers' recent projects "deal with the life of the city in terms of passage (of seasons and time, people and place) and exchange (between individual and collective, interior and exterior)." more ›

As mentioned late last year, Flux Factory (LIC's beloved art space) is being forced out of their home under eminent domain to make way for the MTA's $6.3 billion East Side Access project. They report on their (hopefully temporary) end online:

Now it must all be destroyed. Our entire block will be razed by the pitiless bulldozers of the MTA. Everything Must Go. Alas, such is the fate of all terrestrial things. So, to mark the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, we’re inviting artists to transform all of Flux into one giant installation.

The abrupt elevation of Lieutenant Governor David Paterson to the top seat in NY State government should mix things up a bit in Albany and NYC. First up is the state budget, and with a grim economic outlook and behind-the-scenes transitions, he said yesterday, “We cannot afford to waste another second. We have a budget that is due and a deadline to meet.” more ›